Thursday, July 22, 2010

Sleep...or lack there of!


Oh sleep, where art thou?  Hannah's sleeping habits have taken a nose dive over the last 2 months or so.  I realize now just how lucky we were to have such a great sleeper for the first 3 months.  Hannah slept through the night (7 hours) at 5 days old and never looked back (well a few days here and there, but nothing notable).  Then at 3 months (almost to the day), she started waking up in the middle of the night.  For the first week or so I treated it like a growth spurt and would feed her and she would usually go right back down.  Well, when her night waking continued, I realized that it was no longer a growth spurt and most likely a habit she had formed.  So we started trying a few different things....mainly giving her a pacifier before she woke herself up completely.  This has worked well for the middle of the night wakings (usually just once or twice), but the latest problem is when she first goes down for the night.  We are just never sure how it will go.  Sometimes she falls right to sleep with barely any fussing, while other nights she screams for 45 minutes or more (with us going in and out a couple times to check on her and comfort her).  Then there are the nights (most nights lately) where she wakes up after having been asleep for about an hour.  Sometimes the pacifier will work during this waking as well, and sometimes it won't.  Sometimes the only thing that works is another feeding (even though she just ate an hour ago).  This night time inconsistency is really starting to wear me out.  After letting her cry it out for over 3 months, it is just exhausting that she still doesn't get it.  Doesn't she understand that we aren't going to get her up and play with her...it's bedtime!

Well, after talking to some friends and trying to figure out why she is not falling asleep well and/or waking up in the middle of the night and/or an hour after falling asleep, I decided to try something new.  Our typical night time routine looks like this:
7:10pm - Bath time (every other night)
7:20pm - Pjs, massage with lotion, a few minutes of quite play in her room with mom and dad
7:45pm - Feed (lately our goal is for her to nurse on each side for at least 7 minutes, but sometimes she won't even go that long)
8pm - Story from her children's bible, prayers, and bed
I decided that since she doesn't always have a great feeding at this time, maybe my milk supply is down too much and she isn't getting enough.  So tonight I decided to supplement with 2 oz. of formula after she nursed.  She was a little hesitant at first, but then she ate it all.  In addition to the extra food, I used the Johnson & Johnson Bedtime lotion for her massage tonight.  And I gave her the prevacid her doctor had prescribed for her a while back (we hadn't give it consistently because we really don't like giving her medications....more on that in another post).  So with all of those different things, I am praying that she sleeps very well tonight!  So far, so good!  She went down with no crying at all (a little fussing and complaining, but only for a minute and never any real crying) and has been asleep for about 20 minutes now.  We'll see what happens when she hits the 1 hour mark! 

Any suggestions anyone has would be HIGHLY appreciated.  It is so hard to hear her cry and equally as hard to get up in the middle of the night to pop the pacifier in her mouth or feed her.  It is just hard because I know she can sleep through the night (she did it for 3 months!) and I really don't want to create bad habits with her.  I am really not a fan of giving her the pacifier at night (a habit I don't want to have to break down the road), but that is all we have come up with so far and it really is magic for her.  The second we put it in, she plops her head right back down and falls asleep (not always, but typically). 

Praying that tonight she will prove me wrong and sleep wonderfully!

1 comment:

  1. I wish I had some advice for you but I have no idea!! I'm just so sorry you for you guys. That is rough. I hope last night went better!

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